Ask the Readers: Who’s Your #1?

This is one of those wishful thinking posts. But well…yeah. You know. Everything looks pretty bad for Golden Bear football, which descended from paradise to inferno in about a week and a half. From #1 to “Tedford’s sucking it up.” Not a pleasant fluctuation, but the indignation is pretty amusing.

But there is a #1 out there, somewhere. Let’s separate the wheat from the chaff. I think we’re lying somewhere in the husk. So I ask the question…Who’s your #1? Vote in the poll in the sidebar and leave thoughts in the comments.

I decided to analyze this question. For far too long.

Undefeated…for how much longer?: There are five undefeateds left in Divison I, and I have zero confidence that any of them are the best team in the land. Arizona State, Boston College and Hawaii were all off, Ohio State had to fend off Michigan State 24-17 after taking a 24-0 lead early, and Kansas (yes, Kansas) survived a tough road trip to Boulder, 19-14 over Colorado. If Cal played any of those teams this week, I’m certain we could beat three of them, and moderately confident we could hold our own against the other two. And we’re ranked 20th. Shows how bizarre this season has been.

The one-loss ponies. LSU, Oregon, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Oklahoma, South Florida, Missouri, USC are all in this house. The Trojans might have the most embarrassing loss of the year, yet a win at Autzen this year puts them back in the driver’s seat for the Rose Bowl. Oregon could very well take control of the Pac-10 in the next two weeks despite having no defense. Although LSU has the most impressive wins, it’s hard for me to see them running the table into the first week of December. Not with that maniac in control. I don’t know how this Oklahoma team can be any good. The rest of the teams probably make the BCS queasy–if Virginia-Virginia Tech ends up deciding who plays in New Orleans, expect a leap in NCAA suicide rates.

The dark horses. All the SEC East, which is looking more like everyone will ravage each other, resulting in the finest 8-4 teams to ever grace the earth. Add in Michigan, Penn St., Texas, Cal *sigh*, UCLA, etc. who need approximately 20 losses ahead of them to hope for a chance at #1. It’s funny, because most of these two-loss teams would throttle the undefeateds. But since Cal gets ASU, Penn St. gets Ohio St., BC gets Va. Tech and Kansas gets Texas A&M…we could very well be down to Colt Brennan’s Hawaii.

And there’s a scenario that makes any college football purist retch.

If I had a Blogpoll, here’s what my ballot would look like (without the prettiness of MGOBlog’s design). And I’m ranking this in terms of “I’m confident #1 will beat #2 right now”, not “I’m #1 because I beat Akron, Youngstown State and Kent State by a combined 50 some points.” Jump for it.

1. LSU (7-1): By far the most talented team out there. If their coach didn’t get in the way they’d always be up here.
2. Ohio State (8-0): If they lose to Penn State they need to go far far away.
3. ASU (7-0): Only ahead of the Ducks.
4. Oregon (6-1): Offensive juggernaut. Defensively challenged. The Dallas Mavericks of college football everyone!
5. Florida (5-2): They lost to the best SEC team and the SEC team that nearly beat aforementioned SEC team. If they make it in, I feel sorry for their BCS opponent.
6. BC (7-0): If they beat Virginia Tech they move up, if they lose they fall out of the top 25. You can tell what I think about the strength of this conference.
7. South Florida (7-1): They still got jobbed in that Rutgers game–I still think they’re a very good team, and could be in a BCS bowl game when all is said and done.
8. West Virginia (7-1): Convincing win over a garbage SEC team…just in time to go to Rutgers, where top ten teams go to die.
9. Kansas (7-0): They’re undefeated. So there.
10. Virginia Tech (5-1): Their claim to fame is beating Clemson.
11. Oklahoma (7-1): Ew.
12. Kentucky (5-2): Because I’m sure they’d beat everyone below them if they played now. Even South Carolina.
13. Missouri (6-1): Legit team.
14. USC (7-1): They lost to STANFORD. If any other team had done this they’d be out of the top 25. As it is, they’re one win away from starting to sniff Roses again.
15.
16. South Carolina (5-2): With Vanderbilt’s ascent, could Tennessee be the worst team in that division by season’s end? Wow.
17. Alabama (6-2): Nick Saban Bowl will decide the SEC West in two weeks.
18. Auburn (5-3): Just a really pesky team. That’s their iota.
19. Cal (5-2): *shakes head*
20. Georgia (5-2): Florida should send them off next week. I hope.
21. Michigan (6-2): They are 4 wins away from the Rose Bowl. What a comeback this would be.
22. Hawaii (7-0): *snort*
23. Virginia (7-1): Groohhhmentum.
24. Penn State (6-2): BEAT THE BUCKEYES!
25. Rutgers (5-2): If they beat West Virginia (almost a certainty) the New York media will start clamoring for Schiano, NFL Coach. Then they will lose to UConn or Louisville and all will be normal.